Not Another High School Fan Fiction
by mpjl03
Summary: A Lost High School fic? Really, are you kidding? Well don’t expect it to be full of Jate/Skate/Sana/Jana/Jacket angst. No, this story is about Dharma High’s 5 outcasts, Charlie, Desmond, Hurley, Daniel and Jin, trying to survive their own living hell.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Not Another High School Fan Fiction**

**Author: MPJ**

**Spoilers: Whole Series!**

**Summary: A Lost High School fic? Really, are you kidding? Well don't expect it to be full of Jate/Skate/Sana/Jana/Jacket angst. No, this story is about Dharma High's 5 outcasts, Charlie, Desmond, Hurley, Daniel and Jin, trying to survive their own living hell.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Lost, I'm only borrowing the wonderful characters and making them do silly things to amuse the readers.**

**A/N - Sorry I haven't updated this story in a VERY long time. Here is a revised Chapter 1. I would really love to continue this story so if you read it years ago and would like to see it updated, please comment and let me know there are still fans left! **

_Mr. Artz: You know what? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm not cool enough to be part of your merry little band of adventurers._

_Hurley: What?_

_Mr. Artz: I know a clique when I see it._

**Chapter 1**

"Jack Shepard's WHAT!"

It was an exclamation heard round the world. Or at least the Dharma High cafeteria. Seated at the far end of the vast courtyard, the source of the noise, a thin, slightly disheveled junior was staring fixedly at his friend. Completely struck by the news and immune to the stares he was getting, he mouthed wordlessly. His friend shot a look over to him and then over to the table where the man himself, Jack Shephard, was seated. He had obviously not heard the hysterical cry and for that, Charlie Pace was grateful.

"Geez, keep your voice down," Charlie said in a hushed tone, raising his head and peering around to see if anyone else was still looking. Fortunately, his peers had gone back to ignoring them as usual. He breathed a sigh of relief and sank down into his chair. Sometimes it paid to be invisible; it had the perks of a nearly private conversation.

"Sorry it's just, you can't, I mean…" mumbled Daniel Faraday, still shell shocked. Words finally came to him and he breathed, "You just can't." He fidgeted nervously with his black skinny tie

"He's right, brotha," the Scot next to Faraday said, nodding his approval. "It would be suicide."

"You're exaggerating. It would not be suicide," Charlie scoffed, becoming more defensive.

"But…you can't just…_go _after Jack Shepard's sister," Dan said.

"Dude, he's right. Even Jin thinks so, and he doesn't know what the heck we're saying," Hurley Reyes commented, looking over to Jin Kwon, who nodded confusedly at Hurley's glance.

"And why can't I try. She's not dating anyone," reasoned Charlie, slightly unnerved by his friends' responses.

"Um," Desmond Hume said, trying to contain himself, "Are you forgetting Thomas?"

"They're on and off," Charlie shrugged.

"Yeah, and how do you know they're not _on_ now?" said Hurley, amazed by Charlie's continued defiance. "Dude, do you not remember the last guy that tried to hit on Claire?"

"I'm not going to hit on-"

"Ethan Rom was in the hospital for 3 WEEKS after Jack was through with him," Dan interrupted.

"He had it coming anyway," Charlie growled.

"Yeh," Des said in an exaggerated sigh, "but that's not the point. Jack's the big brother from hell." A murmur of approval spread throughout the group. Charlie opened his mouth, then closed it, unable to respond to that.

"I've never seen someone so….so…" Dan was struggling with the word.

"Frightening?"

"Strong?"

"미친(1)?" was the response from Jin, which was taken with the usual confusion. Jin shrugged and went back to his sandwich.

Charlie sighed. "Did you ever think maybe he's just looking out for her? Isn't it a good thing she has him, to pick out the good guys from the scumbags?"

"Yeah, but how do you know if Jack thinks you're a good guy?" said Desmond, again putting Charlie at a loss for words.

"Jack Shephard is hardly aware of our existence," Des stated matter of factly. "

"Hey, that's not true. He said hi to me the other day in the hall," Dan pointed out.

"I saw that. Stanley Welles was standing behind you," countered Desmond.

"So? He said hi Da-it was Stan wasn't it?" Daniel said in horror as Desmond nodded. "But I responded. I said, 'Hey how's it going?'"

"Yeah, and it took you like 5 minutes to spit out that gem," Desmond said, grinning as Daniel tried to take a feeble punch at his arm but missed by inches. "I'm just jokin Dan."

"Anyway, where were we?" Dan said, trying to steer the conversation away from himself.

"Charlie wants Claire Shepard but he can't ask her out cause Jack's really tough and likes to punch people," Hurley stated calmly.

"I don't _want _her, its not like that!" said Charlie defiantly, reddening a bit at the cheeks.

"Really? I've heard you talking in your sleep and dude, there is a WHOLE lot of stuff I wish I didn't know about you. Wanting Claire is probably number 1 on the list," Hurley said. Charlie's face grew even hotter.

"Look, I'm her lab partner. She's really sweet, not like all those other cheerleading types, you know, she's got other things on her mind besides boys and cheerleading. She wants, well, I'm not at liberty to divulge that anyway. I keep her secrets safe," Charlie said proudly.

"Well I guess its lucky you were the only person left when it came to pick lab partners, because she seems really smitten," Desmond said, a twinkle behind his eyes that told Charlie is was all in good fun.

"I guess we should be happy at least one of us has gotten that close to a girl," Daniel sighed, picking at his food unhappily.

"Dan, there will be a day when we all will be lucky enough to find a girl," Charlie encouraged.

"Will that be in another 20 years?" Hurley asked and they laughed. Even Jin, who hardly knew any English, seemed to get the gist of the joke.

"It's only October, I'm sure things will look up, right?" Charlie said. Silence followed, until Charlie reiterated, "right?" to some feeble nods.

"Charlie, do you really think any of us is going to get a girlfriend?" Desmond asked.

"Or at least get a better social standing," Daniel added.

"Oh come on, our social standing isn't terrible dudes," Hurley said, trying to liven up the gloom.

"Well its not great either Hurley," said Desmond.

"Yeah, I'm still getting tripped up by Miles," Dan said. His tone was light and casual as he was so used to it.

"Ethan stuffed me in a locker this morning. I was lucky Mrs. Nadler caught him, otherwise I never would have made it to English," Charlie said darkly.

"And Goodwin stole my pants out of my locker while I was in gym!" Desmond exclaimed. "And then he hoisted them up to the flagpole. I still can't figure out how he did it."

"That was like, last year dude," Hurley tried to reason. "Besides, not everyone's terrible. Like Sayid, Sayid is cool."

"Yeah, he's cool, but he can also tear off my fingers with his bare hands," Charlie shuddered.

"Let's face it Hurley, we're not going anywhere, so we might as well enjoy what we have, and if that includes looking at girls from afar then actually speaking to them, its fine by me," Daniel said happily, staring across the cafeteria to the far end, where the most popular jocks and cheerleaders sat.

"Are you still looking at her? Dan, she's a freaking nut job," said Desmond, looking at the cheerleading table where Dan's eyes were focused on one girl in particular.

"She is not. She's just…really defensive," said Dan, his gaze lingering on the red head before moving back into reality.

"She threatened to shove a pen up Boone Carlisle's nose if he didn't give her the study guide for Mr. Linus's final exam," Hurley said.

"She's feisty?" said Dan, doubting his sanity more than ever.

"Whatever, at least she's not as dangerous as going into a relationship with Jack Shepard's sister," Hurley shifted, catching a glimpse of Charlie's face and then quickly looking down at the unidentified meat on his tray.

"I thought this discussion was over with, I'm not going to go after her, ok?" Charlie said, a note of clear finality in his voice. The bell rang, ending the period as well as the conversation. They quickly got up to leave the table, hoping not to be trampled. It was surprising how 5 juniors, even ones like Hurley, could be in more danger of being hurt then the new freshman.

"Hey, Des," Charlie called and Desmond turned to face him, "I think I saw Penny looking over at you."

"Where is she?" Desmond said, frantically looking over the crowd to find her across the cafeteria. Charlie sniggered and moved away quickly as Des caught on.

"You're dead, brotha!"

Jin's Translations:

Crazy?


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N – Thanks so much for the lovely reviews. I can see I've already reached my key target of people who dislike the usual High School fanfics. Not that they are bad, because I enjoy many of them. I just wanted to focus on characters that more people could relate to, because on the show, don't most people relate to these guys more than the others? This chapter should give some more insight and background into the characters. Truthfully, the plot insn't really moving, but I'm trying to space it out a bit. Anyway, thanks to ****Charlotte Lewis, EschewingObfuscation, GreenTeandHoney, Frostpaw, blackiebrens, Human, 4everLOST, Got Scots, Alix Zin, and LOTRDesmond for reviewing!**

**Chapter 2**

GYM

"RUN! RUN YOU LITTLE PANSIES! RUN!"

The shout pierced the eardrums of everyone in the DHARMA High gymnasium, both the girls playing badminton and the boys running laps. The school's gym was not massive, but that particular day forced two of the classes to share the gym at once. And as hard as it was for Mr. Bakunin to manage two classes at once, he'd never had one person out of line. Ever.

Desmond and Jin were two of the people running an endless amount of laps around and around until their bodies ached and their heads became dizzy from dehydration and repeated motion. They were not the slowest of the bunch, both of them were pretty fit actually, but they still managed to create a ring of emptiness around them. It's as though they had the plague, but alas, they were never that fortunate.

Gym was made especially hard today by the bet placed between Martin Keamy and Boone Carlisle to see how many times they could trip them up. So now with their ears pounding from the blood rushing to the head and the screams of their crazy gym teacher, Jin and Desmond also had to be on the look out for feet swinging out of nowhere. Another peril of life as an outcast, though by most respects, Jin and Desmond should not really be outcasts at all.

Desmond was a handsome, fit guy with an accent to make girls swoon; yet no girl would willingly admit to having a crush on Desmond Hume. Entering as the new kid in sophomore year, Desmond could have easily been the mysterious, intriguing new kid. He got Jack to befriend him easily, as he courteously showed him around the school. But Desmond made the mistake of meeting Charlie in his History class. Choosing to sit with Charlie instead of Jack at lunch was the irreversible mistake that kept him far from popularity. It later became well known that Desmond was quite poor, and that his mother worked many different jobs to support them. Desmond himself worked at Nadler's Creamery after school, which soon became primary hang out of his friends. Desmond says he knew that the people of this school would never have accepted him anyway, only he secretly regretted his decision when glancing Penny Widmore for the first time.

Jin would also have been popular, if he had been able to speak English. He had been an exchange student in the Reyes home for 3 years but has still been unable to truly grasp the language. Hurley had always been the closest to understanding him, but even he got lost in what Jin said. Jin could never really speak English but his understanding of the language is far more extended then what most people realized. So while they may talk about the weird foreign kid as though he's deaf, Jin is fully aware of what they are saying. He usually doesn't mind because keeping his handicap gives him that slight advantage over the others. Besides, there were very few people that spoke Korean at Dharma High, and Jin hardly knew who they were.

While Jin and Desmond run for their lives, both figuratively and literally, Sayid Jarrah sits on the bleachers with a book in tow. He was the only person exempt from Gym, as he had a leg injury that he said prevented him from any physical contact. Not that Mr. Bakunin didn't try to make him play Gym, its just that both of them were on an even playing field in which they could both crush each other to bits if necessary. So an understanding between teacher and student led Sayid to haunt the bleachers, today with Catch-22 in tow.

He would sometimes look over to see what his fellow classmates were up to. He noticed Desmond and Jin were running faster than usual, but it never bothered him to see that. Sayid had gained a reputation of being mysterious to the point of deadly, which he never got the chance to rebuke. Because really, he'd always wanted friends rather than people that feared him. But apparently most people at Dharma High did fear him after he was suspended for not handing in a research paper. Though the rumor was he broke Mr. Linus' arm with his bare hands.

Sayid kept his head down for the rest of the period, blocking out all of the sounds around him. So he couldn't have heard the yell of "Throw it back!" from the girls' side of the gym. He was quite engrossed in the novel and unaware of someone climbing the bleachers toward him. Suddenly, he felt a sharp jab at his shoulder and he turned up to see a blonde girl with an annoyed look on her pretty face. He knew her to be Shannon Rutherford, Boone's stepsister, although he'd never once had a class with her, or ever talked to her for that matter. And now she was looking at him expectantly and he finally noticed the birdie that lay next to him.

"Can I have it back?" she asked. Her tone wasn't at all nice, she was obviously anxious to leave. He looked at her curiously, and picked up the birdie, twirling it carefully between his fingers.

"What? Do you meant this?" he said, stretching his arm closer towards her. She made a move to grab it, but he pulled his hand back at the last second. He noticed she was standing farther from when she had first poked him. She probably thought he would snap her neck with his feet if she came too close.

"Yes I mean that! Now give it back," Shannon said testily, taking a few hesitant steps forward. Sayid watched the movement and was quite amused to see it.

"Now, now, I don't think those are the words I'm looking for," he said, his tone lighter than usual. He hadn't been this amused since Miles slipped on a banana peel in freshman year; a banana peel that he had cleverly placed, of course. Shannon had been trying to hide her annoyance unsuccessfully with a smile, but now she took no effort to hide her frustration.

"I'm not in the mood for games. What are the words you want?" she said gruffly, placing her hands at her hips and looking at him as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Well, I thought maybe please and thank you would be nice," Sayid said, his smile growing wider as Shannon's disbelief became more pronounced.

"Fine. Can I _please_ have the birdie back?" Shannon asked. Sayid noticed the sarcasm, but handed her the birdie anyway. Actually he had to toss it because Shannon was now three bleachers below him.

"Thanks!" she called as she ran quickly back to her friends. Sayid quickly went back to his book. He disliked attention, whether it was negative or positive. He could tell Shannon's gossip would probably be negative. He was used to this, of course, yet he was slightly unnerved by it. It was as if it was actually bothering him, what Shannon thought of him. Silly, yes, but somehow oddly true.

"MY GRANDMOTHER RUN'S FASTER AND SHE IS NINTEY WITH ONE LEG!!" Mr. Bakunin screamed, his shrill whistle pierced their eardrums once again. They commotion and chaos caused by the blast was evident in the girls side of the gym. Shannon had begun to play again with her partner, Sun Paik. But the whistle distracted Sun, and she hit the birdie hard into the direction of the runners. Unfortunately, she hit one.

He fell quickly, causing people to scatter to avoid falling on him. Sun noticed someone bend down to check if he was alright.

"Just wait one sec. I'll be back." Sun said to Shannon as she moved to see who had fallen. She kneeled to where Desmond was laying over his friend. Jin was facing the ceiling, his eyes slowly opening. Sun stood directly over him, making her the first thing he saw when he regained his sight.

"천사 (1)" Jin whispered before closing his eyes once more. Desmond looked at his friend, clearly confused. He didn't even see Sun's quick look of shock before she composed herself.

Mr. Bakunin finally noticed the two gathered around Jin and he walked over, clearly not worried to see a student on the ground. It was either that, or he just couldn't see him, due to his pirate-like eye patch.

"Is he alright?" he said gruffly as he reached them. His tone was indifferent as he cared little whether Jin was ok or not.

"No, I think I should take him to the nurse," Desmond said. He was selfishly happy to get out of gym, even though he wished his friend hadn't been injured to get him there.

"Fine. Here's a hall pass." Mr. Bakunin pulled the slip out of his track suit and gave it to Desmond who gratefully lifted Jin off the floor and ran to grab their books, trying to make a clean break. And fortunately for them, Martin's foot missed them by inches, knocking Scott to the floor instead. Actually, it might have been Steve, but Desmond was too rushed to notice.

--

Chemistry

Charlie only had eyes for one person in the room, and it was not Dr. Arzt. Claire Littleton chewed a piece of gum absent mindedly as she doodled hearts on her notebook. Charlie's gaze was on her, his lab partner, the entire time. He sat only a foot from her, yet he couldn't say a word to her. Today they were mixing acids, to the amusement of the class. Charlie cared little about science, however, and he knew Claire shared his feelings on the subject.

Yet Charlie could never work up the courage to say something to her, besides relative science terms. Sure, he could ask her to pass the beaker, but could he ask her out? That wasn't likely. He'd known her since kindergarten, but had never actually _known_ her as a friend or even more then a friend. He felt that Claire was special, and all together too good for him. She was a good student with lots of friends and lots of money, which was basically everything Charlie was lacking. Not that he was friendless; it's just that his level of popularity would never be as high as Claire's.

If only he could tell her what he'd known since he was 11 and he had begun to realize that girls did not have cooties. But for now, he was perfectly fine with the arrangement, because at least he got to sit next to her twice a week.

Charlie's absent-minded gazing was interrupted suddenly when Claire looked up from her doodles. He quickly stared at the blackboard, hoping she hadn't noticed him. Luckily, she hadn't. She was maneuvering in her bag to grab her cell phone, which had been vibrating. She opened it, read the text message and quickly shut it. Charlie saw her face fall, and he longed to say something. Claire sighed, her head in her hands.

"What's wrong?" Charlie said it quickly without even realizing it. It was a natural reaction, something he was thinking that came out as words. Claire looked up, clearly as shocked as he was. Charlie knew his ears were probably red. He could feel them burning.

"Oh…um…I'm fine," Claire said. Charlie was surprised to see that she was a bit red. Maybe he had embarrassed her. The thought made him cringe. He quickly looked at his notebook, feeling her gaze on his neck. Finally, he looked up to see she was on the verge of tears, looking fixedly at the blackboard. He opened his mouth, but she said it first.

"Alright. I'm not ok. It's just….no, you won't get it." She said all of this quickly, and Charlie sat there, dumbfounded. He answered the best way he could, hoping and praying he wouldn't make her cry.

"What won't I get?" he said kindly. Claire looked at him, as though she was seeing him for the first time. She answered him slowly, unsure whether she should be saying it, but taking the risk.

"I, well, my cheerleading squad, we're having a bake sale tomorrow to raise money for the school. Charlotte just texted me saying I need 12 dozen cupcakes for the bake sale, but I can't do it."

"Why not?" Charlie answered thoughtfully. "You could just pick them up at Swan's Grocers." Claire smiled, but said,

"They've got to be homemade. And I can't let my teammates down."

Charlie thought for a few minutes, pondering the best response. Finally, he said, "I'll help you make them."

"What?" Claire said, stunned at these words.

"Yeah, why not. I mean, I'm not a big fancy pastry chef, but I can give Betty Crocker a run for her money." Claire laughed. Dr. Arzt turned to the two of them and they both pretended to be copying the equations. When he had resumed his writing, they looked at each other again.

"Would you really do that for me? I mean, you hardly know me," Claire said. The words stung Charlie, but he brushed it off, knowing this was a great opportunity to finally get to know Claire.

"Well, from what I've heard, I'm sure you deserve the help," Charlie answered and Claire actually blushed.

"Ok, well we can meet at my house, if that's aright with you?" Claire asked. Charlie nodded.

"Sure, I'll bring the mix and the frosting. What's your favorite?"

"Well it's kind of weird, but I really like chocolate and peanut butter," Claire said, grinning. Charlie returned the smile.

"Peanut butter it is then," said Charlie. Claire ripped out a piece of paper from her notebook, writing down her address.

"Here. I also put my cell number, just in case you get lost," Claire said. Charlie slipped the paper into his pocket, knowing he would probably keep it with him at all times.

"I'll see you at five then," Charlie said.

"See you at five," Claire replied. The day just became infinitely better for both of them.

--

Jin's Translations:

(1) Angel


End file.
